National Tennis Center, Beijing

The National Tennis Center (simplified Chinese: 国家网球中心; traditional Chinese: 國家網球中心; pinyin: Guójiā Wǎngqiú Zhōngxīn),[1] is a tennis center located in the Olympic Green. It opened on 1 October 2007.[2] It hosted the tennis preliminaries and finals of singles and doubles for men and women at the Beijing 2008 Olympics as well as the Paralympic wheelchair tennis competitions. In 2009, it became the home of China Open.

National Tennis Center, Beijing
国家网球中心

Former namesOlympic Green Tennis Center
Beijing Olympic Green Tennis Court
LocationBeijing, China
Coordinates40°01′08.88″N 116°22′24.44″E
Public transitLincuiqiao Station
OwnerBeijing Shiao Forest Park Development & Management Limited
OperatorBeijing Shiao Forest Park Development & Management Limited
Capacity32,400 seats (12 match & 6 practice courts)
SurfaceHard, outdoors
Construction
Broke ground2003
Opened1 October 2007
Expanded2011
Tenants
China Open (2009–present)

General information

The Center is located in Beijing, just 1.7 mi (2.7 km) from the Beijing National Stadium (a.k.a. The Birds Nest Stadium).

The tennis center covers an area of 41.22 acres (166,800 m2) with a floor space of 285,394 sq ft (26,514.0 m2). The center currently has 12 competition hard courts and 35 training courts, including 20 hard courts, 10 indoor hard courts, 2 artificial grass courts, 2 indoor clay courts, and a mini hard court.

The main court, named Diamond Court (nicknamed National Tennis Stadium), has a capacity of 15,000. The Lotus Court (10,000 capacity), Moon Court, and Brad Drewett Court all have 12 stands, which represent pedals of lotus flowers, one of the emblems of the 2008 Summer Olympics. Lotus court has a capacity of 10,000. Moon Court has a capacity of 4,000 and Brad Drewett Court has a capacity of 2,000. The courts have been specially designed for natural air ventilation to reduce the amount of air pollution entering the courts, ensuring optimal health for both athletes and spectators. It also allows the courts to be cooled and with an installation of cooling machines, the courts' temperatures can easily be reduced to five degrees Celsius. Curtains attached to the roofs of the courts also allows them to be cooled in the heat of the sun.

The project embodies the concepts of Green Olympics, Hi-Tech Olympics, and People's Olympics. It integrates design experience of world sport architecture and will be a tennis competition venue of the state of the art design in keeping with international standards.

In 2009 the China Open, which is an ATP World Tour 500 series event and a WTA Premiere Mandatory tournament, moved its location to this center from its former location, the Beijing Tennis Center.

Rename

The National Tennis Center was named as The Olympic Green Tennis Center or Beijing Olympic Green Tennis Court (simplified Chinese: 北京奥林匹克公园网球中心; traditional Chinese: 北京奧林匹克公園網球中心; pinyin: Běijīng Àolínpǐkè Gōngyuán Wǎngqiúzhōngxīn),[3] at the Beijing 2008 Olympics. Since it started to host the China Open, the venue was renamed to National Tennis Center in 2009.

Timeline

Before The Olympics

All courts except for the National Tennis Stadium were opened on 1 October 2007 and were tested between 6 and 20 October 2007 in the Good Luck Beijing 2007 ITF Pro Circuit, where 36 men and 44 women competed.

During The Olympics
Olympic Green Tennis Center during the 2008 Summer Olympics

The Courts hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The following competitions were played:

The winners
Event Gold Silver Bronze
Men's singles
 Rafael Nadal
 Spain		 Fernando González
 Chile		 Novak Djokovic
 Serbia
Men's doubles
  Switzerland (SUI)
Roger Federer
Stanislas Wawrinka		  Sweden (SWE)
Simon Aspelin
Thomas Johansson		  United States (USA)
Bob Bryan
Mike Bryan
Women's singles
 Elena Dementieva
 Russia		 Dinara Safina
 Russia		 Vera Zvonareva
 Russia
Women's doubles
  United States (USA)
Serena Williams
Venus Williams		  Spain (ESP)
Anabel Medina Garrigues
Virginia Ruano Pascual		  China (CHN)
Yan Zi
Zheng Jie

During The Paralympics

The Courts also hosted the wheelchair tennis competitions of the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing. These were played between 8 and 15 September 2008.

112 athletes (approximately 64-80 male and 32~48 female) were classified into disability group.

The competitions played included:

  • men's singles
  • women's singles
  • men's doubles
  • women's doubles
  • quads singles
  • quads doubles

The winners
Event Gold Silver Bronze
Men's singles
 Shingo Kunieda
 Japan		 Robin Ammerlaan
 Netherlands		 Maikel Scheffers
 Netherlands
Men's doubles
  France (FRA)
Stéphane Houdet
Michaël Jeremiasz		  Sweden (SWE)
Stefan Olsson
Peter Wikstrom		  Japan (JPN)
Shingo Kunieda
Satoshi Saida
Women's singles
 Esther Vergeer
 Netherlands		 Korie Homan
 Netherlands		 Florence Gravellier
 France
Women's doubles
  Netherlands (NED)
Korie Homan
Sharon Walraven		  Netherlands (NED)
Jiske Griffioen
Esther Vergeer		  France (FRA)
Florence Gravellier
Arlette Racineux
Quad singles
 Peter Norfolk
 Great Britain		 Johan Andersson
 Sweden		 David Wagner
 United States
Quad doubles
  United States (USA)
Nick Taylor
David Wagner		  Israel (ISR)
Boaz Kramer
Shraga Weinberg		  Great Britain (GBR)
Jamie Burdekin
Peter Norfolk

After The Olympics/Paralympics

After the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic games of 2008, the center remained standing. It did not host the 2008 China Open Tennis tournament, despite rumours it would. However, it became the new home of the China Open from 2009 onwards. A new center court, National Tennis Stadium, was completed in 2011. Featuring a retractable roof, this new court possesses a capacity of 15,000 spectators, making it the world's fifth largest tennis stadium by capacity. Lincuiqiao Station on Beijing Subway Line 8 opened in the same year, providing the closest public transport access to the tennis center.

See also

References
  1. Beijing2008.cn profile. Archived 9 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  2. http://miaobaby.com/olympics/olympic-green-tennis-center-is-officially-delivered-on-national-day/
  3. Beijing2008.cn profile. Archived 9 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine
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